<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Trickery Loves Company by IllusionOfDeath</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22503220">Trickery Loves Company</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/IllusionOfDeath/pseuds/IllusionOfDeath'>IllusionOfDeath</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Critical Role (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>I had some very strong feelings about this, Not a fan of creepy newfangled bog witches, c2e93</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 18:20:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>536</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22503220</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/IllusionOfDeath/pseuds/IllusionOfDeath</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Technically, maybe they were following the witch's rules after all. Technically.</p>
<p>(In which Jester is very good at playing tricks, but there's more to it than that.) </p>
<p>Set during C2E93.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>53</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Trickery Loves Company</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So I don't really ever write fan fiction, but then Laura Freaking Bailey had to go ahead and pull THAT, and here we are</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She makes it a point not to tell the others what she’d done. It doesn’t matter, in the long run.</p>
<p>
  <em>“I deal in misery,” the witch explained. “Offer me something as painful to you as you think the outcome is worth.”</em>
</p>
<p>To Jester, at least, it’s clear from the beginning that this is a trick. Play to win, and she just might be able to wrestle them all out of this situation.</p>
<p>It’s not that she’s a bad candidate, as far as the rules go—she’s happy, and she knows it, and at this point she has far more to lose than she’d ever care to admit. It’s that she doesn’t want to, really, and Jester’s never been one to willingly give up what was hers anyways.</p>
<p>
  <em>“You want misery?” Yasha’s voice rang clearly through the cracked doorway, before the witch had the chance to slam it shut. “I have it in spades.”</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Whatever Yasha might have offered, it hadn’t been enough. The witch wants it fresh, and Jester’s not sure whether her friend has anything left that she hasn’t lost already.</em>
</p>
<p>By now, four of them had gone in. All four had returned, empty-handed. If they wanted to win this, they were running out of options very quickly.</p>
<p>Jester knows what she has to do. She can do this, she thinks.</p>
<p>(No. She knows.)</p>
<p>Jester goes in, the door closing heavily behind her. This is fine. Everything’s fine. She worships the god of trickery for a reason, after all. Jester Lavorre is very good at playing tricks.</p>
<p>She understands what she has that her friends don’t. She’d rather continue to have that, if she can.</p>
<p>(Her plan almost doesn’t work. It almost doesn’t work, and then she’d be in real trouble, wouldn’t she? She hadn’t considered the full implications of what she’d offered to give up until the possibility became very, very real.)</p>
<p>(But it does work, and the Traveller’s hands guide her spell, and she tries not to think of Essek’s words of warning. She is doing this for Nott, but also for the sake of the Mighty Nein. For her family.)</p>
<p>“Okay,” she says when she steps outside again, tone shaking with urgency. “Let’s go.”</p>
<p>“Did you—”</p>
<p>“You’re fine, Nott, you’re totally fine, now let’s go—”</p>
<p>“It worked?”</p>
<p>She nods. She already knows what’s coming next.</p>
<p>“What did you give her?”</p>
<p>“Something—very precious, it doesn’t matter, okay let’s go let’s go—”</p>
<p>Why is the first thought in her mind always to lie?</p>
<p>Beauregard looks at her, then, clearly concerned, and Jester suddenly remembers what Beau had offered before, and realizes she hasn’t forgiven Beau for that at all. Did she really think they didn’t want her around?</p>
<p>They may not have given anything to the hag directly—but they had all considered it. Some much more strongly than others. She’d heard the arguments begin as she slipped away to take her turn in the hut, and she knows well enough by now that they will only continue. Beau has opened a rift between herself and the Nein that will be very, very difficult to close again.</p>
<p>(And if that’s the case—technically, maybe they were following the witch’s rules after all. Technically.)</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I have two essays due on Monday, and I wrote this instead. Send help</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>